Money Merge Accounts: Just Say, No Thanks.
September 11, 2007 By Matthew Paulson
There has been a new trend in the financial world in the last year or so in which consumers pay-checks are direct deposited directly onto their mortgage, and then consumers pay their monthly expenses out of what is essentially a home equity line of credit, and any money that one does not spend is extra principal paid on to their mortgage. In essence, you’re forcing your self to send all of your extra money each month on your mortgage, which will cause your home to be paid off on a much quicker basis.
These products have taken a lot of different forms. With some of the accounts, you keep your existing mortgage and get a home equity line of credit, others you do a refinance and get a different type of loan. The fees vary from company to company, as does the type of loan you’ll receive. None of these plans are a great idea to put in your financial life. They’re certainly not scams, and some are a lot worse deals for the consumer than others.
The real problem with this account is that it makes paying off your mortgage the number one and sole priority in your financial life. All of your extra money goes onto your mortgage. You don’t choose to send some of your money to a Roth IRA account, some more of it to help your aging parents, some to plan for your children’s college, it just all goes to the mortgage by default. It seems to make a lot more sense to keep the money in your possession rather than send it all to the mortgage company and then borrow money on a home equity loan to pay for your expenses.
There are a number of other problems associated with money merge accounts. Often the mortgages that you will be refinanced into will have higher interest rates and variable interest rates. If you’re in a good fixed rate mortgage at 5% or 6%, you’ll end up paying a higher interest rate in the new mortgage that you are given.
Usually there’s a pretty hefty setup fee to get into a money merge account to begin with. There are many companies that are charging consumers upwards of $3,000 to start using a money-merge account. Considering that you can accomplish the exact same thing by paying off extra principal on your mortgage each month for literally nothing, $3,000 is tantamount to highway robbery.
Money merge accounts aren’t a scam, but that doesn’t mean they’re a great deal either. You’re putting your sole focus on your mortgage, which often should be secondary to other debts and obligations and paying a high cost to do so.
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September 13th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Please do not take this the wrong way, but you need to do more research on the MMA before offering an opinion. I was of the same mind as you—then I attended a webinar, asked all my questions and had them answered in detail. Yes, I was embarrassed that I started off claiming “Scam!” But the MMA folks were patient with their answers. As I’ve subsequently learned, they face this all the time.
Not understanding something before condemning it speaks volumes about that person, but very little about the targeted company. I encourage you to do more research. Of course there are scams out there, but to lump the MMA in with them (and possibly other good programs) is lazy and intellectually dishonest. There is nothing in the MMA that encourages you to avoid paying into your Roth or other IRA or 401K accounts. The sole purpose is not to pay off your mortgage, but rather to become your own bank. Still, I wonder how many of the 12,000 mortgage professionals recently laid-off wish they didn’t have a mortgage payment staring them in the face right now? Yes, I got tired of watching my stocks go down; now I’m enjoying watching my mortgage go down. And should I run into a serious financial problem I do have the HELOC to access. But only after I’ve run through my savings and other emergency financial options.
If you really want to understand the MMA go to my website and click the “calendar of events” button and get on a webinar where you can ask your questions and make your statements. Then run a free analysis of your mortgage and see what the MMA can do for you. And yes, it is guaranteed by UFF. Then report both sides to your readers after you get some answers. And who knows? You may be far wiser than I and possibly save the 10’s to 100’s of people who are on the same Webinar/call from the hideous mistake of going with the MMA. Right now you do not understand it. But once you do, you’ll become the biggest proponent of it. Just like me.
Steve@yourhousepaidoff.com http://www.yourhousepaidoff.com
September 27th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Steve is correct. I mean no offense, but in truth, the Money Merge Account does not cause a participant to change thier life style at all. If they are investing in IRA’s or whatever that continues. For many people the MMA is the most effective way to manage a household budget. The program enables the purchaser to quickly calculate the impact of spending decisions. In short there are other features you are not considering. Check out the websites, watch a webinar. The net result will be your realization that this program is the best way to retire a mortgage faster that the scheculed payments. We have compared it to biweekly programs, scheduled regular extra principal payments. In all cases so far, the program results exceed the results of the alternate strategies by years. The additional savings exceed the program costs. In my case, with about 28 years left on my $185,000 mortgage, the interest savings exceeds $150,000. Would you like to avoid paying the mortgae company $150,000? In the 28 years, spending exactly the same amount, not only will my house be paid off, but depending on investment rates, wwe will have over $500,000. Do you think that might be worth $3,500 to us…Check it out, maybe your savings will be greater than mine.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Matthew, I’m delighted to have stumbled into this blog regarding what I believe will become the single most significant tool to free families from their largest and most onerous debt! As a former financial adviser I paid large sums for estate & investment planning software. About 1/3rd of clients directly benefited from its use saving and earning millions. Nationally, the Money Merge Account(TM) software developed by United First Financial could far exceed such savings. The reason? While most Americans do not have estate tax issues, 64 million have mortgages. If only 10% were to use the software over the near term and save only $75,000/mortgage, that is over $450,000,000,000 interest saved! Once that is spent or invested back into the economy the affect beyond the interest savings is huge. The only arguable assumption I’ve made here is whether UFF can reach that many new client mortgages to be paid off within the next 5 years or so which could then become paid in full within the 8-12 year average they claim.
The feature I appreciate most about UFF’s Money Merge Account (TM) is that refinancing of the first mortgage is not necessary. Nor is any significant change in the family’s financial lifestyle.
Also, there’s no “..forcing yourself..” to do anything either. Unless, you count as such, the self-discipline to routinely perform what one should. Ofcourse, many of us could certainly use more of that. More to the point, the web-based software is like a wise, friendly coach. It prompts the user as to the optimal amount and timing of payments from the home equity line of credit to be paid as principal to the 1st mortgage. However, it is always the user’s choice to accept or reject the coach’s advice. That said, you’ll understand my taking exception to the comment, “..none of these plans are a great idea..” Such generalizations are I believe, generally speaking, tricky.
As to your next paragraph, speaking of generalizations. The Money Merge Account(TM) can at the user’s option, focus on mortgage elimination. Or, it can simultaneously accelerate other debts. Likewise, some or all of discretionary income can go toward debt & interest. So it is quite practical that a user may also simultaneously contribute to the highly responsible purposes you list. To your final point here. Keeping money in a homeowner’s possession is precisely the objective; that is, instead of so much interest going into the mortgage company’s possession. And, it is simply not necessary to use additional monthly current income to reduce the mortgage. Once you’ve become familiar with the Money Merge Account(TM) workings, you’ll be impressed to learn first, the small the amount of HELOC equity necessary. Secondly, you’ll learn that both the 1st mortgage and HELOC terminate at the same time! The reasons you cite for avoiding refinancing are the same reasons the United First Financial folks designed their software to work with a user’s EXISTING 1st mortgage. Even variable rate and negative amortization mortgages are are managable by the program. You and I agree that most families are wise to avoid refinancing; thereby avoid paying for the same number of years (of mostly interest) which they’ve already paid in their prior mortgage.
Matthew, if you or I could achieve the sort of return on $3,500 invested–the same amount for UFF’s fee–with their 8-12 years average mortgage payoff period also being the investment’s period, then Warren Buffet would likely be in line with thousands of others seeking our investment advice. So, please! Check into it and learn for yourself that we cannot achieve the same results on our own. It’s mathmatically impractical for we laymen. The Money Merge Account(TM) is a unique algorithmic formula.
In about the time it’s taken me to write and edit this response you could have become well acquainted as to the working concepts of UFFs life-changing software. And I mean just that. It is amazing to me how users have become so conscietiously motivated regarding their finances. The unique features and feedback they receive make the Money Merge Account(TM),
“..a great deal..” for them, to borrow your phrase.
Finally, consider checking out a resounding 8-page third party endorsement by Broker/Banker Magazine at http://www.brokerbanker.com and look up Volume 108.
Going to my site at http://www.mortgageblessing.com or
UFF’s at http://www.u1stfinancial.com
will lead you to several resources for a clearer understanding. A word of caution however. Once you ‘get it’, you may lose a few nights sleep in anticipation of what it’ll do for your own mortgage.
Sweet dreams! -Jon
December 20th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
I have done a few analyses and my conclusion is that the MMA is actually an effective tool for 2 kinds of people: Those who are financially irresponsible, and those who have lots of debt. Otherwise, you can do the same thing yourself and not have to pay the $3500 fee for the software. But, if you fall into one of the 2 categories, then the MMA can save you an awful lot of money.
One crucial point in participating in the program is your ability to properly manage a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit). The faster you pay down your HELOC, the better the MMA will work for you. There are several creative and extremely effective ways to decrease the payment on your HELOC. These apply not just to MMA participants, but to anyone with a HELOC. You can literally decrease your payment by $100-$200 each month. More info here.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I have to laugh when I read all the rhetoric on the MMA’s. Technically not a scam. All they do is invite people to pay their mortgage at the 10 yr rate. I reviewed the video and found that effectively all extra money goes to the mortgage. Fine, but…if you really pay attention to the example, the extra $1,000 that is going to the mortgage would be better suited for investment or retirement monies. Debt on appreciating property is not bad debt. Adding $3,500 for a $20 program and paying a lot of commission to people involving in multi-level marketing plans is not good debt. Ask a real certified financial planner, attorney or accountant what they think of this. I am not interested in the babble of hundreds of people in on making money on this submitting their expert opinion.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
You guys have no clue how the Money Merge Account works. You open up a secure or unsecured line of credit that has an interest only payment. Deposit your income into the line of credit, then pay your expenses out of it. The money you have left over at the end of the month (discretionary income) is used to pay down the balance on the line of credit. That enables you to send thousands of dollars towards the principle on your mortgage and pay only a small finance charge on the line of credit. This accelerates your pay off time and saves you hundreds of thousands in interest. Just do the math and you will figure it out. This is a great product and if you can’t see that, then you deserve to waste money on interest.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
This is too typical of the kind of advice given by experts who give advice outside their field of expertise. Matthew Paulson could not be more in error.
“The real problem with this account is that it makes paying off your mortgage the number one and sole priority in your financial life. All of your extra money goes onto your mortgage. You don’t choose to send some of your money to a Roth IRA account . . .”
Open-ended HELOCs are new (5 years) financial instruments, and just not well understood, especially by those whose expertise lies elsewhere.
The fact of the matter is that an MMA does not make paying off the mortgage the number one priority to the exclusion of all other financial considerations. Nor does it in any hinder account holders from investing elsewhere. In fact, the software provided by United First Financial to manage the MMA will help account holders take advantage of their best investment opportunities.
Deposits to an MMA are not used to pay off the mortgage principal. Rather, income and other deposits to the account offset the mortgage principal by the amount of the average deposit in the preceding month. This reduces the interest portion of each monthly payment, and allows a greater portion of the regular monthly payment to apply against the principal in each month.
Any balance remaining in the account at the month’s end remains at the discretion of the account holder to use for any purpose. If left on deposit, it adds however to the average balance and can further accelerate the mortgage pay-off. This may pose a temptation to just “let it ride” for the sake of paying down the mortgage, but anyone nurturing an investment portfolio wil find that using the MMA software will simplify analyzing alternative investment opportunities for the balance which may be more beneficial.
Nor does withdrawing funds remaining in the account affect the paid-down mortgage principal. Once the principal has been paid down, it remains paid down as long as what may be equated to an overdraft to a checking account is drawn against the account. This is however not an inherently bad thing.
In fact, it may from time to time to draw more from an MMA than remains in the balance from the account. In part, this is the whole principal behind a HELOC, what United First Financial calls an ALOC.
HELOCs were designed to allow home owners to draw against the equity in their homes to pay off other high interest debt, college tuition, emergency demands on their finances and th like. Though the interest rates on open-ended HELOCs are generally higher than closed-ended HELOCs, which are themselves higher than first mortgage financing rates, they are considerably lower than any other unsecured credit rates.
Again, testing investment alternatives through the software can analyze whether drawing against the balance in an MMA–or even overdrafting the account–presents a theoretical advantage to the account holder.
The key word here is theoretical. The volatility of financial markets could result in an overdraft working to the account holder’s disadvantage, and is not recommended.
MMA account holders should by all means test various scenerios, and optimize their returns. That’s what an MMA is for.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I have yet to experience a product or service offered through MLM that was truly in the best interest of the consumer. I am old enough to have seen numerous such fads come and go. This one will pass as well. Retiring debt using borrowed money just does not work. Wrap it up in all the confusing explanations you want, it still does not work. Remember the old adage folks - if it seems to good to be true….
February 12th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Far from it for me to be a finance whiz but why would I borrow money at a higher (also read that as adjustable) rate to pay off a lower rate?
This thread seems to be a sounding board for all MMA salesmen.
Everywhere I go on the web all comments start as:
“I’m not a salesmen for MMA software but I have a friend……”
Then there is a post from Jim or Jaime sounding like the senior VP in charge of Marketing for United First Financial. Sounds like they are skating on thin ice due to their long winded explainations
February 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I am embarrassed to say that I fell for the MMA program. The Sales Rep told a good story and I fell for it. He told me lies to get me to buy the product and once I receive the product I was devastated to find out the truth. Please DO NOT buy into the hype. I have had SO many issues and I cannot get anyone from Corporate to return my calls or emails. It has been 2 weeks and no one will respond to me. BUYER BEWARE!!! I thought I was dealing with a good company because I couldn’t find any negative feedback on the BBB website. Boy I was wrong. Please learn from my mistake…Do not buy this product! Do not trust United First Financial to live up to the promises that their Sales Reps make. Too bad I learned this lesson a little too late.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Sara please explain the problems you experienced?
March 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I have seen a couple of presentations on the MMA, and I have to say that I cannot find any problem with the concept. The math works, you can get yourself ahead on your amortization schedule, and pay relatively little in HELOC interest by offsetting most of it with your monthly paycheck. Your will pay off your mortgage much sooner, and you will pay the bank much less interest. Whether that is better than taking extra money and slamming it into the stock market is anyone’s guess: use your own crystal ball to determine what the market is going to do in the next ten years.
However, I do find plenty of problems with the $3500 charge for the software. I don’t think I’m alone in that I already have a “normal” HELOC set up as part of my home purchasing process about 3 years ago. That was a very popular way to do mortgages a few years ago, HELOC instead of a 2nd mortgage. There is no reason I can’t apply the principles of the MMA on my own, with the existing, and quite user-friendly, online banking features already available to me at the bank. The main question people should be asking, and one that I can’t get a good answer to, is: How much of the benefit is due to the software “optimizing” the timing and amount of money transfers between accounts, and how much is simply due to utilizing your HELOC to advance yourself years into the future on your amoritization schedule? Until the MMA folks come up with a calculator to split out these benefits, I feel their market is limited to only those folks that don’t ask the hard questions.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Matt has the right idea, all you are buying for $3000 for software that does not do munch except crunch numbers make your self a excel sheet, anyone that takes handling there money seriously does not need it.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Look at their trade literature. There are many fees and commissions to be made by selling customers the $3,500 calculator. The program is wrapped in classic “boiler-room” style. Just read the postings of their imploring sales consultants on this thread, “I know $3,500 sounds like a lot of money, but wouldn’t it be worth that small investment to save $180,000 in mortgage interest”? Let me think about this…….NO! Wasting $3,500 is never a good idea……
March 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
…and tell me how this Jon Johansen who posted above sleeps at night. Mortgageblessing, my behind. You wrap yourself in trust and belief and pad your pockets with people’s hard-earned money.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Analysis of the article
These products have taken a lot of different forms. With some of the accounts, you keep your existing mortgage and get a home equity line of credit, others you do a refinance and get a different type of loan. The fees vary from company to company, as does the type of loan you’ll receive. None of these plans are a great idea to put in your financial life. They’re certainly not scams, and some are a lot worse deals for the consumer than others.
(1) See attached comparison from “personal RE investor magazine” endorsement. Also, Mortgage Planner magazine endorsement, and Broker banker magazine endorsement. Also, see http://www.CMGhome.com (I have this loan available but the MMA is better because the CMG has:
o A monthly service FEE
o Costs about 10k to get into
o Forces you to get into an adjustable rate mortgage
o Only utilizes 2 of the 3 mathmaticals principles of (No stagnant money, interest cancellation, open-ended interest vs closed-ended
interest)
The real problem with this account is that it makes paying off your mortgage the number one and sole priority in your financial life. All of your extra money goes onto your mortgage. You don’t choose to send some of your money to a Roth IRA account, some more of it to help your aging parents, some to plan for your children’s college, it just all goes to the mortgage by default. It seems to make a lot more sense to keep the money in your possession rather than send it all to the mortgage company and then borrow money on a home equity loan to pay for your expenses.
You don’t take money from your current investments. This program is “in addition to” your current investments in your 401k, IRA, mutual funds,etc. DO NOT take money from your current investments to make this work. Just use what’s currently sitting in your checking acct. This program is a plan for your childrens college. If you don’t have a mortgage payment and own your home outright, then utilize your LOC and continue to pay down the debt the same way as during the program. It’s about being debt-free not just mortgage free. Call my financial planner and speak with him, he has the program on his home. Heath Bartlett, Bartlett Financial, Lexington, SC.
There are a number of other problems associated with money merge accounts. Often the mortgages that you will be refinanced into will have higher interest rates and variable interest rates. If you’re in a good fixed rate mortgage at 5% or 6%, you’ll end up paying a higher interest rate in the new mortgage that you are given.
That’s the CMG that requires to refi into and adjustable not the MMA. Don’t do this one. The guy, Brooks Barnett who sold more of the CMG’s as a loan officer (48) than anyone else in the country in 2006 (he’s out of San Diego), not instead promotes the MMA, not the CMG.
Usually there’s a pretty hefty setup fee to get into a money merge account to begin with. There are many companies that are charging consumers upwards of $3,000 to start using a money-merge account. Considering that you can accomplish the exact same thing by paying off extra principal on your mortgage each month for literally nothing, $3,000 is tantamount to highway robbery.
Yes, you can take 3,000 (if you have it) and pay towards your principal. Then What? We’re not using your 3,000 to pay for the program anyway, we’re using the banks money. It’s like when you refinanced a home. Did you pay the closing costs (atty, processing, appraisal, etc)? NO, you rolled the cost into the loan. Same thing here, we’re rolling the cost into the LOC. Anyone can take money and send to their 1st mortgage but no one does or the do it when they can. Less than 5% of Americans own their own home. We’re using the banks money to payoff our 1st mortgage, not the clients. I have a client who had 15 years left and was sending an extra $500 per month towards principal. They were going to payoff in 7 years. With the MMA, they going to payoff in 4 yrs AND I paid off their 30k boat AND their 30k car. The MMA can do it faster than you can own your own because we’re using the banks money and not limited to what you the client has. My clients are accumulating wealth at a staggering pace. Click on this link,
http://www.thedirks.org/compound.php?init_balance=0&deposit=4000&interest=10&years=7&inflation=2
THEN compare the results to the FREE analysis from your MMA rep. The MMA wins hands down everytime.
Money merge accounts aren’t a scam, but that doesn’t mean they’re a great deal either. You’re putting your sole focus on your mortgage, which often should be secondary to other debts and obligations and paying a high cost to do so.
INCORRECT!!!!. I pay off ALL or most of my clients debt IMMEDIATELY. The program is about being debt free not just mortgage free. The program isn’t even about paying off your mortgage, it’s about maximizing cash flows. If you don’t want to payoff your home, that’s OK, then every time the software/program prompts you to do a “funds transfer”, then give it to your financial planner. I can give your financial planner A LOT more money than you can, because I’m using the banks money and not yours. The program has about a 12-14% return-GUARANTEED!
Just a few of my personal referrals below. Contact me via http://www.dreamhomesguaranteedusa.com , Chris Beckham
A few Video referrals
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5074585725467599580 (-Holders, software developers)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7447826280311557155 (Jones-Lobbyist for the City of Greenville)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4246528043063661557 (crolleys- Santee Lynches Regional Council of Governments)
May 29th, 2008 at 3:43 am
This is the kind of thing that works if you follow the program. You can have all the software in the world - software that prompts you, holds your hand, praises you for managing your money the “right” way, software that comes to you looking and sounding a little bit more like Jesus Christ every day of the week. But you and I both know the truth: It’s only as reliable as you are in using it. If you follow the game plan, you’ll be ahead. If you start to slack off - despite that 3500.00 software - the outcome seems inevitable…
The paradox within this financial strategy is the fact that many people are already sitting on sizeable lines of credit, home equity loans and what have you.
Some of these people do not have the start-up money required for this plan.
If a potential Money merge client has racked up debt that has resulted in a less-than-stellar credit rating, he might get that LOC but at what interest rate, I wonder?
It also bears mentioning that lines of credit are not being handed out like peanuts on a cross-country flight.
The way I see it is that Money Merge can work for someone who is motivated, of course, as well as for someone who is not up to his eyeballs in debt and loans.
The MM could be a worthwhile tool for someone who is too busy to manage his own debts and appreciates the convenience of being guided along by his software.
For the virgin debtor, so to speak, the MM seems like an attractive and feasible alternative to the traditional way of paying down a mortgage.
I do have a question for anyone who is actually selling this product. I do not need to know what type of commission you make on selling the product (my imagination is pretty good), but what I would be interested in knowing is this: Does one of your goals include recruiting others to work under you? In other words, is this in any way, shape or form a pyramid?? I believe I read on one of the pro-Money Merge websites that if a seller of the software partners up with another seller, there will be significant benefits as a result, one such advantage being the corporate designation to which both parties will be entitled.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 am
The fact of the matter is this. Since the product has come out over 153,000,000 million dollars in debt has been paid off. People can bash it all they want but ask people who are actually on the product and using it what it is doing for there lives. It forces them to see there debts, it programs what is the smartest debt to pay off first and it is proving to be a great tool. This country is in a whole lot of crap and there has to be a change. The meathods the financial planners and others who bash the product talk about doing things that have been there for a long time. This is something new that is working. The test market that was performed in Dever with 400 families proved to work with 90% of them. Those numbers are amazing.
Talk to people who are using the product which is a huge number of the agents that are selling it. So you can bash that they are getting commissions but most of them took the leap into the $3500 dollars themselves. Get off the MLM hate box and see that there is something new here.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
From Chris Beckham’s 23 May 08 Infomercial: “We’re not using your 3,000 to pay for the program anyway, we’re using the banks money. It’s like when you refinanced a home. Did you pay the closing costs (atty, processing, appraisal, etc)? NO, you rolled the cost into the loan. Same thing here, we’re rolling the cost into the LOC.”
-Yes, you did pay closing costs, you either pay them up front or “roll them into the loan”. Your loan was $100,000 but since you “rolled” in your closing cost your loan becomes $105,000 or whatever the closing cost were. You are also paying interest on the “rolled in” amount.
-You don’t get to use the banks money for anything. It is only the banks money until they loan it to you, then you must pay it back with interest, which is the cost of borrowing the money in the first place. This is a scam. All the techno-babble boils down to this: You are asked to borrow money to pay off borrowed money. Can you see where this will get you. The only way for this to work is if you can borrow (the second time) at a much lower interest rate then the first loan. Good luck finding a bank to do that.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Chad,
Where did you get your numbers from? Is the $153,000,000 saved debt from this program? Where can I find data on the test market in Dever or Denver, Co.? I will look at your numbers but I need verifiable information, not just a statement from a commercial website.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Well, since I don’t have any debt to speak of… I’m not too worried about ‘wasting my money on interest’
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Off the top of my head, if you can afford to pay back monthly chunks of 4.5% HELOC money to apply to a mortgage with larger 5.62%, why not?
As long as one’s HELOC balance does not continue to grow month to month I would think in this scenario the interest one would SAVE on the FIXED rate mortgage would be alot more than the interest expense on the LOWER rate HELOC!
In other words, why not trade more expensive debt for cheaper? In this case I have a better rate with my HELOC (.75 below prime) than my fixed rate mortgage (5.625%)… and the amount available HELOC is GREATER (150K) than the balance on my FIXED mortgage (98K). What am I missing here???
September 5th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
WOW. how many of you who THINK this is a scam actually read up on it or investigated it. OH by the way Ersnt & Young (one of the worlds largest accounting firms) Just awarded the united first financial “The Entrepreneur of the Year Award”. The Product has saved over 150 million dollars to its current client. you can call the headquarters and they will gladly bury you in all the editors choice awards and facts you need.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
When the HELOC rate is at, or below, the mortgage rate, I have little issue with using the HELOC shuffle. Otherwise, the savings are non-existent. All the benefit of MMA comes from one’s monthly income going to the mortgage and/or HELOC. “no change in lifestyle” is BS. I’ve had numerous dialogs with agents. None of them appear to understand the concepts of compound interest, time value of money, or arithmetic (you know, ‘math’).
The idea of being prompted to “text message the software” from my cell phone from the supermarket to “determine whether I can afford to buy steak on sale” (I kid you not) is rather unappealing to me. Yes, an agent has that process as an example. Every purchase should be run by the MMA software.
Joe
September 5th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Tim - E&Y sponsored the award the way Toyota sponsors the Emmy Awards on TV. E&Y doesn’t endorse MMA or UFF any more than Toyota underwrote the Titanic (the movie, not the actual boat).